Classes forced to move online in Ukraine

Greetings, dear brothers and sisters,

News from the Bible Institute.

God has blessed us with the new academic year at the Bear Valley Bible institute -  Ukraine. This year there 5 students on the program. All of them and their families are from the territories where the active warfare is taking place. We are trying to provide some financial aid for them and pay their rent. By taking care of the physical needs we let the students study and devote themselves to the educational process without distractions. We are grateful to the brethren and congregations in the USA who provide the opportunity for our students to be get training and become the qualified preachers in Ukraine.

If you remember the history of our Institute in Ukraine it was founded in Kramatorsk and from 1997 to 2007 it rented a place from a private college and started training preachers. That was the time period of church growth in the Donetsk region. Almost every city would have a congregation and there were dozens of baptisms every month. Then the Institute moved to the city of Gorlovka and it started a new chapter in the history of the Bible Institute. And the building in Kramatorsk that we used for 10 years is now destroyed by missiles. Unfortunately Satan destroys what's dear to us and has value for us.

The first subject that our students had was Hermeneutics (taught by Dennis Sopelnik). Now Jim Sherman is teaching The Scheme of Redemption and Family Life. These are important courses necessary for the future ministers of the church.

We are also starting the Masters' program for our graduates.  We have 6 students as of right now and we are in the process of developing the schedule for them. This will be the first recruitment of the last 5 years. We are in constant need of Ukrainian Instructors and for this reason it's very important for us.

News from Bela Tserkva Church of Christ.

We are trying to spread the Gospel with the help of food packages distribution.  A lot of people are signing up for their turn and we are using the contacts as the opportunity. Also we ship the food packages to the terrorists that were reclaimed after the occupation. Mostly to the people we know personally and the people who are connected to our Christians. This is also a good way to demonstrate the Lord's love.

Last Saturday we had a seminar for our students and the church members on Apologetics. It was conducted by our American brother Michael Houts who works for the NASA. It was very interesting and educational.

Our government is preparing us for the hard winter. Most likely there will be shortages of natural gas, electricity and water because the Russians keep destroying the infrastructure of our cities with the missiles' strikes.

We ask you to keep praying for us and for our Instructor Valentin who is serving in the Military Forces of Ukraine. Please also pray for the speedy return of peace to our country.

Last month I had to have a knee surgery connected with meniscus tear. Please pray for me as the post surgery recovery is accompanied with some difficulties.

Thank you for your help and support. May God keep you.

Your brother, 

Dennis Sopelnik

Guest teacher in Malawi

Hello everyone!

It is amazing to see how days are ending so quickly. We have almost 3 months before the year ends. Many good things have happened this year and we wish they could continue and the year shouldn't end so soon. However, we respect the seasons given by our good God and Lord Jesus Christ to us.

During the past 2 months lots have happened and we sometimes fail where to start because we are so excited about good news we are receiving from our former students who are doing good work in their respective homes. Within these two months 35 souls have been added to Christ and 18 more restored! We always thank God who works in us all for this course of winning souls to Christ. We also had a short course teacher from our sister school in Gweru - Zimbabwe. It was a blessing to have him teach and he too was excited to receive a warm welcome in Malawi which is rightly nicknamed as "The warmheart of Africa"!

Teaching

As we all are aware that the purpose of our school is to train men become faithful preachers of the sound and health doctrine, we have covered a lot of course since we started our second semester in July, this year. Brother Ishmael Mutichu from Gweru taught the "Synoptic gospels" from the 18th through 22nd of September. This is a good thing as it does strengthen the relationship between the sister schools within central Africa and beyond.

Evangelism

We have had lot of preaching campaigns in August and September. The results of these campaigns is that 35 souls saved and 18 souls restored. We have brothers who are our graduates and are doing a good job of winning souls to Christ. Brothers Saliwa, Takesure, Mateyo, Shadreck just to mention but a few. The other campaign will be from the the 28th through 1st of October, 2023. This campaign will be in the district of chitipa near the boarder of Zambia and Tanzania. Our students are looking forward to going. We ask for your prayers . 

We are so thankful for the support we receive from the Bear Valley Bible Institute International and also from the Hillcrest Christian family. The bold between us is beyond our imagination. We pray that God continues blessings your families as we still need your involvement in this work of training men and winning souls to Christ. As far as we have souls still not saved, we have the responsibility of reaching out to them - 2 Timothy 2:2!

"Eternity Is Forever, Think Souls

In Christ,

Ephron and Clergynton

Lusaka, Zambia students preach to prisoners

The Courses Covered

 The courses covered in the third quarter of the year 2023 were 3 giving us a total 21 covered so far.

1.    The New Testament Church  

2.    Denominational Doctrines

3.    Church Leadership

Twelve students attended classes in the quarter under review.

Outreach programs

1.    Through the Bear Valley Bible Institute outreach program, one of the students (Michael Sitwala) continued preaching to the incarcerated at Lusaka Central and Kamwala Remand Correctional Facilities.

2.    Students were involved in the evangelism programs, teaching of the new converts, Bible classes and preaching in their respective congregations.

3.    In the quarter under review, students were sent in pairs to the new congregation planted in June 2023 every after a week.

We always thank you for your continued support and God bless.

Accra, Ghana students conduct campaign

Accra Monthly Report, August 2023

Glory be to God for another month ending in success. We are always grateful to our God that He began with us and ended in peace. Our Lord has done greater things in us as He provides with our needs in times of crisis yet in all things He encourages us to hold firmly to Him in the doctrine and our way of life. To report to you the challenge of health challenges as our brother Gyan-Mante is challenged with mild stroke, Kojo with consistent health challenges, and Sammy. We glorify God for how far He has brought us and we are praying for healing and good strength.

CLASS ACTIVITY

Regular class

All the instructors are endeavoring to complete their courses with their exams and quizzes followed by the school’s campaign program.

Master’s Program

As with their normal class, they met for two (2) weeks with Brother Jerry Bate on the course, World Religion. Eleven students participated in the program.

CAMPAIGN

Doryumu follow-up

As we reported in our previous report for our next campaign location, Duayedeng, Paanor, and its environs, we saw the need for another place in Doryumu to embark on follow-up evangelism to strengthen the church and to restore some of the fallen brethren which commenced on 14th to 20th August 2023. Our past student, Philip Abruquah is the Evangelist for this church. Our students both rescent and past students, the Legon University campus church, Nsawam Road congregation, and the host brethren together, did work on campaigning both day and night preaching for one week. The campaign was successfully completed and the Lord added to the church with six baptisms.

We thank God for this successful occasion in strengthening us throughout the week. We pray that the new members will be strong in the Lord until He comes.

Bear Valley Top Radio Program

We are always proud to be preachers of the gospel of Christ and  supporting the program with our funds. As we always report to you, the radio program keeps yielding fruit. Almost every week after preaching, we have numerous calls and private calls for further studies. As we reported in our previous reports, we are also invited to different places to help in teaching and counseling most listeners on some of the topics that were not clearly understood by them (listeners) and other social matters bothering them. This program has further sent messages on the advertisement of the school to brethren who are showing interest in attending the school. We have three prospects who are willing to pick forms to register for the academic year.

This month we had one baptism in addition which took place at Nsawam Road church.

Mode of funding the program

We are grateful to our Lord who has endowed us with understanding in the ministry. The staff of the school is doing well to sacrifice some amount from their monthly allowance, an amount of four hundred cedis each to pay the monthly installment of three thousand cedis for the ongoing preaching work.   

We are using this medium to inform you of the wonderful work the Lord is doing in this program.

We will be also grateful to receive your contribution to this programme.

We request that you pray with us.

Port Harcourt, Nigeria celebrates graduation

 ACCOMPLISHMENT REPORT ON THE FIRST GRADUATION CEREMONY OF BEAR VALLEY BIBLE INSTITUTE PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE NIGERIA, WEST AFRICA

The Director, teachers and students of Bear Valley Bible Institute Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria are very grateful to the Almighty God and to our sponsors for the great success of our recently concluded first graduation ceremony which was held on July 29th 2023.

NUMBER OF THE GRADUATED STUDENTS

A total of 36 students from our two centers completed the mandatory 48 courses and participated in the graduation ceremony but only 34 of them received the diploma certificate, four of them did not get the  certificate due to their low scores in some of the courses and their inability  to score  the required  70%  total average. Those students have been asked to come back for the courses they failed.

PRE - GRADUATION DINNER HELD ON FRIDAY JULY, 28TH 2023.

The graduation ceremony started on Friday, 28th July, 2023 with a pre-graduation dinner to celebrate the success of Bear Valley Bible Institute in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. About 150 persons including the directors and teachers of Bear valley Bible Institute from various States in Nigeria were in attendance.   

Chad Wagner the Representative of Bear Valley Bible Institute International was the Chairman of the occasion. The dinner programme was a great one. It featured: - songs, prayers and speeches from the participants. The highlight was the presentations of a projector, teaching materials on hard disks and flash drive to our school by Chad Wagner.

MASSIVE TURNOUT FOR THE GRADUATION CEREMONY ON SATURDAY 29TH JULY, 2023

The graduation ceremony attracted a massive crowd of people from many states in Nigeria. Those who attended the ceremony included the bishops, deacons, preachers and very many members from various congregations in Rivers State and beyond.  Also in attendance were the directors and teachers of Bear Valley Bible Institute from other states in Nigeria. The chairman of the occasion was Engr. Gorge Chukuwlewa Okoroma and the special Guest of Honor was Chad Wagner who also represented Bear Valley Bible Institute International.  

Special graduation lecture was presented by Aniefiok J. Udoudo a Professor of Journalism and Media Studies, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. The topic of the lecture was “The 21st Century Challenges of the Church, the Preacher and possible Solutions”.

The ceremony which lasted for about 3 hours was very colorful, orderly and well organized.  The highlights of the ceremony included: – Presentations of Diploma certificates of Bear Valley Bible Institute to 34 students, Presentations of special awards to some students that merited such awards, Recognition and Appreciations of some brethren who provided support and encouragements to the school.

It is worthy to note in this report that one of the graduates by name Job Emperor Umeshem was the overall best academic graduate.  He graduated with a total average of 94.56% and GPA of 3.89. He was applauded by the crowd in the occasion. Beside the award by the school, he received a lot of monetary award from the audience.

THE AFTERMATH OF THE SUCCESSFUL GRADUATION CEREMONY

The success of the first graduation ceremony is good for the image of the school. Right now the way the churches of Christ in Rivers State was seeing the school has changed for the better. They now understand that the school is very important. Many brothers in Christ are coming to be admitted. We had done 8 new admissions after the graduation and more are requesting for the application form.  The students are now more committed to study and the director and the teachers are more determined to give their best.   Moreover, our normal Friday and Saturday lectures are going on without hitches.

CONCLUSION

The graduation ceremony of Bear Valley Bible Institute Port Harcourt Nigeria was successful. We are grateful to God who gave us the strength and we are also grateful to our sponsors in the United States of America for their financial support.

Reports from:

Anthony Ejike Oluria,

Togo students and staff evangelize

August 2023 Report from BVBI- TOGO

Glory and honor to our Lord Jesus Christ for ever and ever, who protected the divine institutions in Togo and gave success to our activities such as: churches, evangelism by students on Fridays, evangelism by zone, speakers and seminars to evangelists and their wives every three (3) months, spiritual education to youth and debates with pastors of denominations who accept debates around which often propose either live or WhatsApp groups.

BVBI

Classes continue with teachers every day. Every Monday, the students report on the difficulties encountered during their door-to-door evangelism outings. This time it's a plea on their part for the school to issue a card identifying them as students and also to provide them with Bible tracts. The few we have kept are totally exhausted.

They are always regular in class and follow the lessons carefully. The month of August is marked by heavy rains. At the moment, there are enough mosquitoes in the area because there is water everywhere, and most of them suffer from malaria and are treated in hospital.

Here are the lessons of the quarter:

1. Overview of the New Testament.................................ATTAH Komi Ekpé Pierre

2. The Gospels of Mark and Luke....................................ATTAH Komi Ekpé Pierre       

3. The Book of Acts............................................MENSAH Akovi Espérance

4. The ministry of the multiplication (evangelization)..........MENSAH Akovi Espérance

5. The book of Genesis.............................................NYEMANTA Cephas

6. Biblical Authority..............................................NYEMANTA Cephas

(An additional course is required, entitled "Bible and Tradition", taught by NYEMANTA Cephas, to answer the questions our students and evangelists encounter during evangelization campaigns). 

Before starting classes in the morning, they follow devotional and memorization exercises which they write down, or some of them recite the verses according to their choice and the instruction given by the teacher. Every weekend, they all take an exam in each course.

Evangelization:

With the evangelization of the areas instituted with the school's activity, the month of August was a real success, with a record 18 people baptized. The students and evangelists did a wonderful job preaching the Word of God. The evangelism on Fridays and the work of the zones will bear fruit, and already associated with Saturday's school, a village 10 km from NOTSE is already inviting us for a public evangelism that we plan to do until the end of September, when the rains will be a little scarce.        

Evangelistic campaign in Togo:        

With the course of denominations and daily evangelism a village 10 km from Notse (MAYIKPO) invites us for a public evangelism of which we wish to do two evangelistic campaigns in September if the rains become a little scarce and here are its locations:

1. LAVIE-APEDOME

2. NOTSE (MAYIKPO village, 10 km away, for church planting) and early October in

3. GBALAVE.

Visits to the churches:

Two by two with the center's motorcycles, they travel miles every Sunday to serve in local churches and especially. Churches visited in August include : ALIKPODJI, LAVIE-APEDOME, PRESIDENT-COPE, AVETONOU, AGOGOME, KATI, TCHABOM, TSAVIE, HANINGBA.

Cameroonian schools working together

Dearest in Christ,

Greetings from this beautiful Cameroon. We hope by His grace you and your entire family are doing great. I apologize again for not sending my report as frequently as in the past. The network connection in my community is getting worse but I will always take the time to send my reports when the means is there.

The work of the Lord here is moving on smoothly here in all that we are doing, from the congregational activities, to the BVBIC-Wotutu. We give Him all glory and honor as He deserves.

Students in the Bear Valley Bible Institute here in Wotutu were taking a Greek class that will lead up to a time of preparation to take the exams for the second quarter. Our brother, Minister Otia David, keeps doing a great job in teaching that course. Students are growing in that area thanks to his efforts.

Evangelism is our mission and our mission is evangelism. This statement is common in our speeches because we are not ready to trade the evangelistic efforts and desires of the school for anything. Anywhere with Jesus we can safely go, and we are going places because we think souls. We were in a French speaking area in a joint evangelism effort with French brethren from our French school in Mbanga. The BVBIC-Wotutu has taken on a new mission identity as, “A BIBLE SCHOOL WITHOUT BORDERS.”

PLANS

Students are now on mission work and I will be in different congregations to see how things are going there. Three students are in three virgin lands to preach, and to see how a new congregation can be established in those locations. Please pray for us.

 APPRECIATIONS

On behalf of many souls here, I say thank you for your prayers and your support. They are helping to keep this work going at this level. Please, we pray for you, and we ask that you pray for us as we do our best to keep the work of God going here. Please share our report with others.

May God make His face shine on you.

Elangwe and family

By His grace director BVBIC-Wotutu

Visakhapatnam, India students attend preacher's workshop

Dear Brethren in Christ,

Greetings to you in the precious name of Lord Jesus Christ our savior. I bring greetings from the students, staff and faculty of Visakha Valley Bible College, a Bear Valley Bible School International. By the grace of God and your prayers we are doing good, hope this message finds you all good.

First, let me thank you for your prayers, our loving God is keeping us all safe and sound, we are so much thankful for your concern.

Our school continues its mission of Training Men locally. Right now our country needs some affective men who are matured enough to care for their community and drive them in the right direction, also educate their community in good morals for a ethical life. Under the materialistic lifestyle, certainly people are going far away from doing good to other and being selfless. So, training men locally for the benefit of their own community by teaching the morals from the Bible, which is the scripture given to man kind by our creator. Indeed, our joint efforts certainly helping us to fulfill our mission of Training our Men Locally. Thank you so much.

Last month, we had a great opportunity to attend the State wide Preachers fellowship meeting. Preachers working in the state of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Telugu speaking states. There was an attendance of over 800 preachers, we took it as a previlage to attend along with our preaching students and faculty along with 60 other preachers that works along with us in AP and Telangana States. It was great time to fellowship and unity building. Our preaching students along with our staff have gotten opportunity to present our selves on the stage before this large number of preachers, we are grateful that we have gotten a very good reputation in Training Men for Lord’s effective ministry. During this program we took advantage of distributing some free books and other gospel literature.

We are thankful to the Team Voice of Truth International for sending their magazine regularly, our students get a copy every time we receive them from brother Philemon Rajah. We are so thankful to Jerry and Paula Bates also Betty Choate for keeping us in their mailing list. Indeed, it’s a wonderful literature to share with the fellow preachers, everyone received them in gladness, during this meeting we have distributed several copies of Voice of Truth International at our stalls. One exciting moment was, one of our faculty Brother Vamsee Bushanam given opportunity speak for 50 a lesson based on Looking unto Jesus, who is the author our faith, he did a tremendous job of presenting his lesson by encouraging all the preachers to look unto Jesus in mentoring the Next Generation Preachers. By the we had to hire a bus to travel from Bikkavolu to Vijayanagaram which is about 6 hrs drive to attend this program, where as from Visakhapatnam, brother Nageswara Rao our former student took the responsibility of driving the students to the venue on our Van, we are proud of this brother.

Brethren, we thank you so much for your prayers of encouragement, please convey our heartfelt salutations to the brethren you worship with. You are in our daily prayers. Kindly pray earnestly as the leaders are destined to make our country a religious country, they are doing so intensely. The recent attacks in the state of Manipur and several other Northerner states stands as a clear indication of changing things in very quicker way. Please pray that our country would elect a person who would rule our nation democratically. We shall be having our general elections in the year 2024. Besides all kinds of circumstance we continue to fulfill our mission, we want to take every opportunity that’s coming in our way, one of them is holding a week long Campaign Week. We have scheduled it to be held in the first week of October, we are excited about it. Kindly pray as we are getting ready for it. Our special thanks and appreciation to the brethren at Lake Houston, Strickland Church of Christ also Farmershill Church of Christ.

Thank you brethren once again, God bless you all.

Love from all of us at Vishak,

John Dean M

Edifying the saints and evangelizing the lost in Zambia

AUGUST 2023

REPORT

 INTRODUCTION

We send to you warm greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We also take this opportunity to give honor and glory to God our heavenly Father who through His grace and the love fully shown in Christ has granted us the rare opportunity to work in His Kingdom!

Once again this report has been written in an effort to provide some insight into the work that BVBI-Zambia has continued to experience.  It is always a great pleasure to write and reflect on the happenings here at BVBI-Zambia during the month of August, 2023.

1.      Updates on individual students for the month of August 2023

Reuben Museka

From Mbala of Northern Province we have recorded a great progress in our Alumni there that has been strong and sound in the Lord. The church is still attending services in a class room and we have good representation of the word of God. Hopefully more laborers are going there to strengthen more of the work of God with Reuben

Winston Changala

In Luwingu of the Luapula province, we are planning as a school to help him in establishing broiler project there for sustainability. He is still preaching and making good progress, working with the Local Church there, they are planting a new congregation in a village there, whinstone’s effort is highly recommended for God.

Arnold Silangwa

Ever since Arnold lost his only daughter, he continues to face some challenges with his family. His wife has been constantly sick. And this has forced Arnold to travel back and forth between the Copperbelt Province and Luapula Province of Zambia. Last week he managed to take his wife to the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka to the see the specialists. We humbly ask you to continue remembering Arnold’s wife and his entire family in your prayers.

2.      Updates on evangelistic work in Luanshya- copper belt province

Our current students have really learned their responsibilities as preachers very quickly. We visited Mpongwe district, this district is in a rural place we met with two congregations from southern part and northern part of the district. Our idea is to help in working together to establish a new congregation on the west part of the district, we are working as a team with these two congregations and they are feeding our students as we do evangelism there. We have included the pictures of women who dedicated there time in working for preachers for two days we spent there.

The first meeting and evangelism was very successful they fed us more than we expected as we did the work there. Our students have committed themselves wholly to the saving of lives. We have seen them fully involved in evangelism around the school and in Luanshya as a whole.

We are planning to plant another new congregation in the next two months and from these efforts many men and women have come to know the Lord. The following are some vital signs of evangelism recorded during the month of August, 2023:

i.                 Baptisms

We have recorded three (3) baptism in central province and three (3) baptisms in Copperbelt province. We have also recorded two baptisms in southern province one (1) in the Luapula province and five (5) in eastern province of Zambia. together we have recorded fourteen (14) baptisms.

ii.                Restorations

We have recorded nine (9) restorations in Copperbelt, four (4) in the northern part of Zambia and seven (7) in Lusaka Mtendere through our Alumni Simon Nkhazi.  We had a total of twenty (20) restorations recorded

iii.              Total number of Bible studies conduct

We also recorded twenty I three (23) household visited for Bible studies during our work in the month of August

iv.              Total number of men and women spoken to and invited for Sunday service-

We have recorded seventy-eight (78) men and women who were invited to attend Sunday service with us, the total number include central and copperbelt provinces respectively. We recorded seventeen (17) on the copperbelt who attend the first Sunday when they were invited.

3.      Our gospel campaign meeting in Kabwe central province

We had a very successful evangelistic trip to Kabwe, Central Province of Zambia. We had the chance to interact with Men from all over Zambia during our meeting. About 43 congregation were at the meeting the meeting was hosted by the brethren from Central Province.  The meeting started on 24thAugust 2023 and ended on 27th August, 2023. We travelled as always with other members of different congregations of Luanshya district of the Copper belt province.

Our students participated immensely in the program for three days, we have included pictures of our students and teachers to that effect. We are happy that our students are getting both theory and practical work on the ground as we interact with the Church at large.

Conclusion

May our God bless the entire family of Bear Valley Bible Institute International and  our hearts are forever indebted to Woodland Oaks Church of Christ for financial support and all the encouragement in this noble mission. You are all always in our prayers!!

Brotherly,

Cephas and Fred

700 children attend kids camp in Cambodia

Glory to the Most High God and our Lord Jesus Christ for His mercies which abound on us.

The work in Siem Reap Cambodia is doing very good. We are very excited to share with you what we did in August 2023.

IBISR’s class:

Every Monday to Friday we begin with an hour long devotional at 6:30 in the morning. From 8:00 to 11:30 we have bible class study. After bible study, we have lunch together. In the afternoon all the students come to English class together.

In August 2023 IBISR’s school finished the books of Psalms and Denomination Doctrine. Now we are continuing in the books of Romans and Jeremiah.

Application week:

Every weekend, the students and staff of the IBISR’s school get to go out to preach the gospel to new people and encourage the church members who live out of town. We love sharing God’s words with three special villages: Ta Kamm, Sam Buor, and Kouk Khnang village. We have members of the church in each village and these have been especially good for recruiting new students.

Children’s camp:

Children’s camp in Siem Reap was attended by IBISR’s students, staff, and members of the church of Christ in Siem Reap. In that camp, we had 700 kids plus adults! The children are very joyful to study about Jesus Christ singing songs, playing games and eating together. Camp lasted 3 days over 3 different locations. All children immensely enjoyed being together in Jesus’ name.

Prayer:

Please remember us in your prayers. 

1) Remember our new brothers and sisters in Christ who just got baptized into Christ: Brother Khoeun, Brother Watana, and Sister Sophorn.

2) The plans to join in the regional seminar next month. 

3) Darat’s sister and Piseth’s nephew who are very sick.

Servants of Jesus Christ. 

Piseth Rin and Darat Run. 

Co-Directors IBISR. 

The Ashcrafts visit Guinea

Introduction

Lack of information creates confusion.

To avoid this confusion, we at Bear Valley of Gueckedou have a monthly obligation to report to our supporters on the completion of activities.

In a few words, you will find the following information in six points.

I-Teaching

In August, there was no theoretical teaching. However, the students did put the theory they had learned in class into practice during their time off. More on this later in the report.

Il-Evangelism.

During the three-week break, the students were not idle in God's vineyard.As mentioned above, they did door-to-door evangelism, according to the instructions they received before joining their respective congregations.

Three of them namely : Balla Frangadouno, Alain Mano and Lambert Kamano succeeded in convincing three lost souls to confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Next, Justin Malaya Simbiano, a graduate of Bear Valley's first class, tells us with joy that he has finally succeeded in converting his own mother to the church of Christ after three years of exhortation.

III-Personal profile

It gives us great pleasure to introduce you to Balla Kamano, a teacher at Bear Valley of Gueckedou.

He was born in Gbangbadou in 1972. He converted on 5/1/1994.

After two years (1999-2001) of training at the Bouaké Bible School under Barry Baggott, he returned to Guinea to serve as a preacher. He began his ministry in Gueckedou in the Solondonin congregation, eventually moving to his hometown of Kissidougou to serve in the same function in the local church to the present day.

We present him as a humble and faithful servant of Jesus Christ. His gentle, patient character is a great asset to his preaching ministry.

IV-Training women in Kenema

In an effort to teach children the way of the Lord, Steven Ashcraft and Karen Ashcraft spent two days, training Sierra Leonean women in Kenema, and two Guinean women took part.

During this training workshop, our Coordinator Steven met us with some of the leaders of the Sierra Leone congregations to discuss the progress of the church in the three countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, especially starting in the Kissi area, namely Gueckedou, Koindou and Foya, which is very receptive to the gospel. A meeting of leaders from the said area is scheduled for 29/9/2023 in Foya to discuss and plan evangelism activities in the zone.

V-Bible Seminar in N'Zerekoré

We would like to inform you that the congregations of the Churches of Christ in Guinea are organizing a Bible seminar from September 20 to 23, 2023 in Mohomou, N'Zerekoré. On the following themes:

1- Church History

2-Importance of being a member of Church of Christ

3-Church Organization.

VI-Suggestions.

We ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to support us in prayer for the peace and social tranquility in Guinea and understanding between us brothers in Christ for the progress of the church.

We also ask for spiritual support for the success of the above-mentioned Bible seminar.

Conclusion.

In the image of what we have as a result of evangelism. We can believe that our students are obeying Bear Valley's mission.

We thank God for his protection during the 31 days of this month and for the various tasks he has enabled us to accomplish.

We are grateful to Bear Valley International for their gratitude in supporting the training of evangelists in Guinea.

We would also like to thank our Coordinator Steven Ashcraft for his personal efforts in the development of the Church of Christ in Guinea.

We also thank everyone who contributes in any way to the growth of the eternal kingdom in our country.

May God bless each one abundantly in the Lord.

Reaching souls in Peru

Greetings dear brothers from Lima - Peru to all who can read this brief report. 

We have finished two more courses, I mean Prison Epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon) and I - II of Peter, Judas. The first course has been This server (Juan Abanto) dictated and the second course was taught by Abraham Alata. 

The students who have been participating in the classes have been: Alejandro Manrique, Victor Quijandría, José Daniel, Bety Melo, Marta Nola, Mariela Ramirez, Carolin Chavez, Ethel Lapa and Jhonely. It has been once again a pleasant experience teaching this course and all the lessons related to the course through these last eight Saturdays. 

On the other hand, one of our teachers (Andrés Nuñez) is doing special work in a church in the south of Lima, every month he travels to give personalized instruction to some male members of the Church of Christ in Subtanjalla – Ica. They have certain technological limitations, so the best thing is the face-to-face class in their city, probably arrangements are made so that they can be added to the next courses virtually, but this work of Andrés is resulting in a great blessing for the brothers in said congregation.

Thanks to the invitation, we have also participated in an evangelistic campaign in the Iglesia de Cristo Los Rosales, a church north of Lima where brother Juan Nima (a brother that some of you may remember) preaches, along with brothers who came of the Church of Christ in Hyaleah – USA. The result of this campaign resulted in 12 baptisms to the glory of God.

We have also had a three-day event for preachers and leaders at the end of July, the 3 instructors from the Institute were invited to participate as speakers, taking advantage of the opportunity to communicate with other church leaders, but also to talk a little more about the benefits of the institute and to stimulate them to count on us as a resource to increase the knowledge of the brothers in their respective congregations, we hope in the Lord that this bears fruit.

We were also invited to support an evangelistic activity in the east of Lima, in the church of Christ in Santa Anita, where the brothers Moisés Quispe and Richard Gomez preach, they have gained many contacts with whom we hope the brothers are surely already working.

We are about to start the following two courses, in these two months the brothers in charge of teaching the courses will be: Marriage and Family (Andres Nuñez) and I Corinthians (Luis Camacho). The students are already waiting for this new beginning!!! 

Thank you to all the people directly or indirectly involved in keeping this project going, may the Lord continue to bless you!!!

Good things in Sierra Leone

Bear Valley - Kenema, Sierra Leone

ACTIVITY OPERATION REPORT FOR JULY, 2023

Full Time and the Extended Programs

INTRODUCTION                               

We are here again with the exciting news of the spread of the Gospel in Sierra Leone through the impact of the Kenema Bear Valley Bible Institute. As mentioned in our previous report, we are in a challenging period to share the Gospel as it rains almost every time. But the good news is that the good work of the Lord continues.  In the month of July, our full time and extended students continued their classes, souls were converted, and an evangelistic campaign was conducted. Below are the details of the highlighted activities.

ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

On July 1, our full time students resumed their classes and joined the extended students. All of them resumed and brought exciting reports from their various congregations. Please we continue to covet your prayers for our students as they will soon, by the special grace of God complete their studies here, so that they will continue to serve the Lord in many parts of Sierra Leone. Our staff are committed to their work so much that they give their very best in taking the students through the courses. Apart from being active in the classroom, they are so much engaged in our evangelistic vision. Please continue to pray for them.

EVANGELISTIC CAMPAIGN AT GIEHUN

The school directed her one week evangelistic campaign at Giehun town. Giehun is a town in Kailahun District that is occupied by mostly Muslims. It covers 92 miles away from Kenema where the school is. Our decision to direct the campaign to Giehun sprang up from the love of the many souls there who are perishing on a daily basis. Moreover, we have a small congregation there that needed to be strengthened, hence decided to go there. As stated above, in the midst of a bunch of unbelievers, especially fanatic Muslims, the Lord’s church was established in Giehun. This congregation was established by the brethren in Kailahun town (Kailahun is the District head quarter town) together with Brother Jonathan Joseph, a native of Bonthe Island, far in the northern part of the country. He migrated to the Kailahun District and settled in Giehun. He has been making requests to come over and help with the evangelistic efforts. We finally stormed the Giehun community from July 25 to July 30.  We were joined by brethren from the host congregation and also those from Kailahun, led by their evangelistic team leader, Alfred Tengbeh. For the 6 days we spent there, 6 souls were converted and 4 brethren were restored. We have included Giehun as part of our mission territory where our students and staff will be going to help nurture that young congregation and to continue to evangelize the area. We will not rest until, “All have heard.”

THE DIRECTOR’S VISIT TO BEAR VALLEY IN LIBERIA

In an effort to continue to enhance team work and fellowship, the Bear Valley Bible Institute in Ganta in Liberia sent an invitation for me to go and teach their students a course, The Book of Revelation. Through the prayers and support of our coordinator, Brother Steve Ashcraft, the staff in Ganta, and the Bear Valley family in Kenema here, I was able to make the trip there and returned back safely. It was a lovely and wonderful experience with our students in that country. Apart from the lecture which I was originally scheduled for, I was also involved administratively in some discussions for the smooth running of that school in Ganta. God indeed is to be glorified for everything!  

A STUDENT’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Jacob Jusu

Jacob James is one of our soon-to-graduate students who is doing very well academically and evangelistically. He was born on May 5, 1999 to Mr. and Mrs. Sahr James, in Dia Village, Kissi Kama Chiefdom, Kailahun District, Eastern Region of Sierra Leone.  Jacob comes from a polygamous home. Religiously, he grew up as a member of a denomination where he met his parents. But on one beautiful day in September of 2019, Brother Jacob was confronted with the true Gospel by one of our first graduates, Victor Sahr Moroe, who is now the preacher at the local congregation in Kangama town. Through the power of the Gospel, Brother Jacob was converted to the Lord’s church in Dia. Upon his conversion, he began to express zeal in the things of God, and soon he began to be taught on how to lead the Lord’s Supper, giving, etc. He showed good Christian qualities over time and finally in 2021, he immediately expressed a desire to be enrolled at the Bear Valley in Kenema. From his influence and through God’s favour, we already have two other prospective students from his congregation that shall be coming for our entrance examination soon, Lord willing. We are very hopeful that Jacob is going to be a vessel unto honour after his graduation as he continues to show that while with us here.

CONCLUSION

Thank you dear brethren for patiently going through this report. We continue to appreciate your partnership in all aspects. May the Lord keep us till we could meet to share the good news of another report!

An update from Ukraine

Dear brothers and sisters,

Thank you for your prayers and your unfailing participation in the work of God. Last month our family had an amazing news. God gifted us with the 3rd daughter. We named her Diana. Praise the Lord, the labor went safely even though there was an air raid alert and the medical staff suggested us to move to the basement for shelter. Unfortunately, our hospitals are not prepared for such dire conditions and our family was very scared.

There were also some changes implemented in the work of the Bible Institute. We had to let go one of Instructors as the disciplinary action and some others followed him. We understood that it had to be done and calculated the risks of negative consequences.  However, we keep moving forward and everything is ready for the new school year.  As I mentioned in the previous letter the air raids are constant all over Ukraine, there's always a danger of blackouts and lost of the central heating. For these reasons we will transfer to the online studies until there's no danger for our Instructors and students. We have got 5 students for the first year of the program.

There are all temporally dislocated individuals and we will have to seek additional funding for rent needs of every family. On average it's about $200-300 a month.

It's been 1.5 years since the beginning of the active warfare and, naturally, people are exhausted and longing for peace. They want to go to work, buy groceries and clothes, have some normal rest and stop worrying about their families every second. But, unfortunately, we have to live with the prolonged war with extensive bloodshed. Currently we have the 3rd stage of mobilization. Men younger than 60 are dealing with forceful encounters in the streets when they are being given the drafting paperwork and sent to the military commissaries for medical evaluation and dispatching to the military units. The  fatalities are numerous and the military units are in constant need of recruits. It's very stressful emotionally for those who are scared and not willing to join the military. For this reason it's not unusual that men prefer to stay at home and only women go to work. The humanitarian aid is the only means of surviving for some people. We are trying to use this avenue to share the word of God and introduce people to the church.

Last Sunday I went to preach to Brovary to support the local  congregation that works for the Lord a lot. During the following week Konstantin and I went to Kramatorsk to deliver the grocery care packages. People there are in such great need that the list of people asking for help numbers over 500 individuals. And they are willing to wait for months for their turn.

There were baptisms this month in Kiyv, Nikopol, Kremenchoog. God is adding people to His family. It encourages us and gives us strength to keep working. Thank you for your love and support for our ministry.

May God keep you all,

Your brother Dennis Sopelnik

Graduation in Nigeria!

Beloved in Christ Jesus.

Greetings and appreciation from the staff and students of the BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN for your partnership and support that results in to the success of today's graduation of 20 servants of God.

We are very excited for your concern and love.

May the Lord continue to bless all our work together in Christ Jesus, amen.

Sincerely yours in His grace as a servant,

Makinde Ebens (The Chief Servant of BVBIN & SWSE-IBADAN)

A new school doing well

We at NIATS community are happy for the visit of our loving and courageous missionary and coordinator bro Chad Wagner on the 2nd of August. Happy because his visit is always edifying and strengthening. We highly appreciate him for donating books of value and quality to NIATS. Determined to visit Nigeria for missionary works despite the insecurity in the land is commendable and laudable.

Such is a great inspiration for us. May the good Lord reward him. We took him round the projects going on in the premises. The buildings that are undergoing rehabilitation including the provision of iron doors and protectors on the existing halls. We all ate the maize harvested from the school farm.

It is with great delight that we announce the birth of 18 persons into the Church. In addition we had 24 restorations. These are results from our students who went on their practicum. They are back with the above edifying information. To God be glory.

In the Lord's service,

Bro Bernard Osita Akokwu for NIATS.

Chad students use vacation time to evangelize

Bear Valley Bible Training Center Moundou-Chad

Report of activities for the month of August 2023

May the peace and immense grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of our common joy, be upon you!  We hope this report finds you in good health.  Above all, receive our most sincere greetings, especially the greetings from the students, in the precious name of Jesus Christ!

You will find in a few words, what we can tell you about our activities during the month of August. We will tell you about the students' activities during vacation time, their return for the third term, and the actual start of the third term. 

In fact, the vacation time lasted more than six weeks. This time allowed the students to rest, to do their family and business work, and to evangelize. Speaking of evangelism, during the entire vacation, the students presented the gospel to many people in their respective communities. Thus, we recorded five baptisms.  We have some images but they are of poor quality. We glorify the name of God for these opportunities and ask you to join us in praying for the spiritual growth of these souls.

After the vacation time, our students returned to the center on the 26th and 27th of August. However, we regret to announce the loss of a student. The student, HAMSOU S. Gabriel, dropped out of the program. He is a soldier in the Chadian National Army who left military service to come to Bible school.  Unfortunately, during this vacation time, he returned to the army.  According to him, he was relentlessly harassed.  We are praying for him, because with the information he has given me, he is continuing to preach the gospel to families around him. We pray that along-side him, we will succeed in establishing an assembly in his area in days to come.

Regarding the resumption of classes, they have once again been running effectively since the beginning of the new quarter on Monday August 28.  The first week has just ended with the exam on the books of Job and Psalms.  We say thank you to God for his support, as we pray for His grace for the rest of the term.

We would love to have the ability to give a copy of the Bible to each of our new converts and to have a few extra to use in our evangelization activities.

This was briefly, in a few words, the information concerning the activities of the Center for the month of August 2023. May God continually bless you in the name of Jesus Christ!

 In Christ,

 Your servant DATOUDJI

Cameroon students baptism more than 20 souls

Calvary greetings from this end of the universe. The church of Christ in Mbanga sends her salutation to the sister assemblies in the world. The staff and students of the Bear Valley Bible Institute Cameroon – Mbanga also send their warm greetings. The students are presently in class, sending their greetings as I send out this report.  

The 5th batch of students are already preparing to take exams for their second quarter and are also preparing for their second internship which will take place by the 2nd of September. While others in the country will be preparing for school to start back, we in BVBIC-Mbanga will be preparing for another soul winning mission to various villages and towns in the French speaking regions of our beloved country Cameroon. We need your prayers as we go out to win souls. 

After a long break of reporting due to a heavy charge of work in the field as the director, where some staff members and I have been moving up and down to attend to some Macedonian calls, we are happy to be able to send you a report of the work that has been going on since our last report. We want to assure you that the church, and the work that is done by the graduates and the current batch of students, is greatly impacting the church not only in French Cameroon, but is spreading her influence into more great works in other French African countries.  

Our students registered 15 baptisms during their first mission work and internship. Some others also registered baptisms during our weekly evangelism program to Mudeka, Banaberi and around Mbanga. 

Our mission last week ended in Buea where another 5 baptisms were registered during the summer youth retreat. My son, Ititi Precious, was one of those baptized. 

We are in the midst of the rainy season in Cameroon. This climate really disturbs our students with attacks such as influenza, cough, typhoid, and malaria. Due to the present rains, there is a lot of stagnant water that is helping to accommodate the multiplication of mosquitos. In the wake of this, most of our students are under severe treatment all the time. Our first aid kit is helping and also the school nurse is doing a good job. In some serious cases we send them for proper check up at the hospital. As of now though, we are doing great, because there have been some great improvements. 

We also concluded our VBS mission successfully as we handed our young ones, Bibles and certificates. Thank you so much to the powerful team that was made up of Bible instructors, Bible teacher for the kids, some nursery aids, and some with a good mind and desire to manage the kids. May God continue to give you all the grace you need to do His good works.  

Our congregation is also doing well. We had some lessons from our intern, brother Bigda Rufus, who is studying with Nations University at the moment. His lessons were based on leadership and eldership. We are growing and are introducing some ministry work in our assembly. The most recent is the hospital ministry and the prison ministry. We have prepared for the work and have sampled some hospital work as we are going to officially begin the hospital ministry by next month. One hospital has already given us a program for devotional opportunity and will soon allow us to commence with work every morning. 

Evangelism is our mission and our mission is evangelism. 

From your servant,

Ititi Benedict

Working to keep the church pure

BEAR VALLEY INSTITUTE OF BIBLICAL STUDIES, TAMALE - GHANA

JULY 2023 OPERATING REPORT

We had very fruitful activities in the month of July 2023 by the special grace and mercies of God. We continue to move forward in the right direction with all events relating to the school and kingdom business. Indeed, one cannot downplay the efforts of our sponsors and all the prayers made by brethren for our noble Institution. We give God the glory.

DOCTRINAL CORRECTION JOURNEY TO KOKA

We started the month with a move to address a doctrinal issue in one of the congregations in the Upper East Region. A strange doctrine cropped into the Koka congregation that we needed to go and address. The Koka congregation is handled by one of the graduates of Bear Valley Tamale by name Jacob Nichema. This false doctrine from the information gathered was introduced into the church by his son, called Peter Nichema. Due to the inactiveness of the father to activities of the congregation, he took advantage and began to introduce the workings of so called miracles, prophecies, miraculous tongues and many other practices alien to the doctrines of Christ. Preachers in the area never bother addressing issues. We had the information and to go make an effort to address it.

During a meeting with Jacob, his son and some of the leaders, we were told those things they practice have made them able to build a mighty building for the church. It took very serious arguments before addressing the issue with Biblical proofs. Peter who was deep into such practices with the youthful leaders was not willing to listen till we had to raise our voices before. We praise the Lord that he ended up admitting to being at fault. We have since then been trying to convince him to come to the Bible school to be educated. It is of a truth that one of the biggest challenges confronting the Lord’s church is the issue of doctrine. Many are moving away from the truth or adding to the truth that we have received from our Lord Jesus and His apostles. We pray the Lord give us more sound preachers and watch who will be willing and defending the truth at all times without fear or favor. This journey was embarked on by Brother Francis Ayine and James Bisong Legend. May the Lord help us. Amen.

TWO STORES BEING BUILD ON CHURCH LAND

Two stores are being put up on the local congregation in Kpalsi South Congregation plot of land to support the business of Brother Bisong Legend’s wife migration to Tamale. Sand was bought in the Month of July; Blocks were moulded towards the work. We give glory for the life of our senior brother, Steven for his consistent determination to making all brethren stand strong to serve their maker. The Lord Bless him greatly. Work is going on speedily on these stores and will soon be ready for usage.

ACCADEMIC WORK AND PRINTER PURCHASED

Students are back to campus, and lectures have resumed successfully with three course taught in the month of July, 2023. We praise the Lord for the smooth running of lectureship in the school. No course is skipped for any reason as all courses are handled sufficiently. The New Testament Church was taught by Brother Adjei, Hermeneutics two by Brother Albert Tamanja and Life of Prison Epistles by Brother James Legend respectively.

We give God glory for showing mercy once again by blessing us with a new Canon printer to aid our printing work in the school. We thank God for His gracious grace towards Bear Valley in Tamale all the time. God Bless all who have us and the Lord’s work in their hearts.

KPALSI SOUTH CHURCH BUILDING WORK, BENEVOLENCE AND EVANGELISTIC WORK

The local congregation in Kpalsi South continues to make efforts towards growth in all areas necessary. Concerning its building, the congregation through its giving was able to engage the services of a carpenter to work on the ceiling joints. The giving habit of the congregation continues to increase to the glory of God.

Also, in the month of July 2023, the church embarked on a neighborhood benevolence activity in efforts to show the love of Christ to some selected need persons in the community. Being an Islam dominated community, those who benefitted from this kind gesture of the church gave praises to God. We took advantage to share Christ with some of them.  

One soul was added to the church in the month July 2023 to the glory of God. We wish to thank God for standing the Kpalsi South Congregation in all the activities that are going on our effort to keep the church strong and growing. We thank you Jesus.

VISITATION AND SEMINARS

Visitation is a key tool to dealing with false teaching and strengthening our congregations. As we also want to start our recruitment journey early for the next batch, we wish to continue to prioritize visitations. Brother James Legend was able to visit some congregations in then month of July in the Upper East Region and Northern Region respectively. He visited the Kugashegu, Denugu and Garu congregations in the Upper East Region. He also visited the Kanodor congregation, Sanguli, Bikpajab and Gbogundo congregations respectfully under the Zabzugu Tatale District. It is our hope God will bless our efforts.

Brother Albert Tamanja Malir attended and participated in a seminar at Duuni in Northern Region. It was a three days seminar that brought together preachers and leaders and members of various congregations across the Chamba, Bimbila, Salaga and Yendi areas. This event was well participated by all. The school was marketed by Brother Albert who was one of the key speakers of the event. Eleven souls were baptized at the end of the program and added to the Lord’s church. Hallelujah.

The congregation in Kpassar invited Brother James Bisong Legend for a three days women seminar in the month of July 2023. He was the main speaker for the event. It was a wonderful program. He spoke on the duties and responsibilities of the Christian woman.

It is our prayers that the Lord continue to give us the strength, wisdom and good will stand for things of God and not self.   

We praise His name,

Bear Valley, Tamale.

Malawi student helps church correct error

Meet the Pundi Family

Since we introduced the oldest family on campus last month, it is only fitting we introduce the youngest family this month. Matthias is 28 and his wife, Charity, is 24. They have a 1-year-old son, Chance. Matthias was baptized at age 15, and Charity was also baptized at age 15. They were both born and raised in Mpherembe which is a village in northern Malawi near Mzuzu. Before coming to school Matthias was a reed farmer.

Matthias met Charity in 2020 at the local market. He is one of the few students we have who graduated high school. Charity finished her sophomore year. After graduating, he was not sure what to do. He wanted to continue his education but was not sure how he would be able to afford more education. In the spring of 2022, he received an application to our school from a friend who had attended a meeting. Matthias immediately applied. 

Even at a young age, Matthias was very active in his local church. He preached, led songs, and was also the church secretary. Here at school, he has maintained his desire to participate and grow in knowledge. Following graduation, Matthias and his family will return to the village and continue to farm and work in the church. If an opportunity arises, he will further his Bible education. 

I am excited to see what life holds for the Pundi family. Matthias has the gift of critical thinking. He will ask 70 percent of the questions in class and a fair number of them will require me to postpone the answer until I can do further research. He is a thinker. Both he and Charity are consistently towards the top of the class. Please take time this month to pray for the Pundi family. 

Sad News from the Bible Society of Malawi

One of the works the school is involved in is purchasing Bibles and selling them for 10% of the original cost or giving them away if the interested individual can say all the books of the Bible from memory. Not only do we have this program here in Lilongwe, but we also work with the Bear Valley School in Ekwendeni. Recently, Mbano, the director in the Ekwendeni school, went to purchase more Bibles from the Bible store. He was told they were no longer printing the “old” Tumbuka version as it was outdated, and they could not make any money with it. They were now printing the “new” version. At a glance this would not seem to be a problem. However, the “new” version includes all the apocryphal books. Mbano decided to purchase Chichewa Bibles which have 66 books. It is very sad our Tumbuka brothers and sisters will not be able to learn from God’s word in their their mother tongue. It is funny to mention that while Mbano was in the store working through a solution, five other customers came in requesting the same “old” version. Let’s pray the Bible Society of Malawi changes their mind about the Tumbuka translation. 

Great News of Multiplicity

One of our students has returned a week early to make up a course he missed due to chicken pox. Upon greeting him and his family, I learned of the great success he had while in the village. He was given the opportunity to teach Bible class for two weeks. They asked him to teach on the Lord’s Supper which is one of the most disputed parts of worship in Malawi. Many congregations have divided over the Lord’s Supper. George carefully taught what he had learned from 1 Corinthians and the gospels. He made sure to only teach the text and not tradition or opinions. George also included the entire context of the relevant passages and not just a few verses here and there. I am excited to write that the congregation immediately corrected their worship service that Sunday. It was through George’s careful presentation of God’s words, and only God’s words, that the congregation was taught. 

My dear brother and sisters, this is what Bear Valley International is all about! Teaching others to teach others to teach others. Multiplicity of efforts at its best. I am so thankful Bear Valley has provided a great way to spread the pure word of God to changes lives. Please make time to lift up those at Bear Valley to our Lord and Savior. Have no doubt that your financial assistance is making a difference in Malawi!

In Him,

Dale Kastner